Peter Wisdom (Earth-616)
, ; formerly , | Alignment = Good | Relatives = Harold Wisdom (father); unnamed mother (deceased); Romany Wisdom (sister, deceased); Tink (ex-wife); | Universe = Earth-616 | BaseOfOperations = United Kingdom | Gender = Male | Height = 5'9" | Weight = 158 lbs (71.7 kg) | Eyes = Blue | Hair = Black | UnusualFeatures = Formerly wore an eyepatch | Citizenship = United Kingdom | MaritalStatus = Divorced | Occupation = Government Agent, field commander for MI-13, Former British Secret Service Agent | Education = | Origin = Mutant | PlaceOfBirth = London, England | Creators = Warren Ellis; Ken Lashley | First = Excalibur #86 | HistoryText = Way before Black Air, Wisdom allegedly served in a covert unit called the Factory. The Factory's mission was "data extraction" from "genetic anomalies" -- capturing and experimenting on mutants. In the service of the Factory, Wisdom perpetrated crimes against mutant-kind, until the job proved too much for him and he tried to quit. Instead, the Factory incarcerated, interrogated, and tortured him, until he had a psychotic breakdown and was catatonic for six months while his sister Romany took care of him. However, the only source for these events is Romany, who may have been lying, as it does not fit with Pete's work for Black Air. When he recovered, he began a secret crusade to atone for his actions, and over his years in British intelligence he secretly assembled an extensive archive of classified information about the people, groups and governments that committed crimes against mutant-kind. By the time he quit Black Air, he had documents on more than 300 cases. When he was young and the pride of MI-6, Wisdom was in love with a girl named Sari St. Hubbins. Wisdom was zooming up the ranks, and he promised Sari he wouldn't let work get in the way of their relationship -- but then he joined Black Air, even though Sari hated them. Later Sari, an assassin, was contracted to assassinate the Queen -- and was shocked when Wisdom turned her in to Black Air when she failed. Wisdom did it because he cared for her, and because he hoped she would get better in rehab. During his time in Black Air, Wisdom saw and did unspeakable things. Black Air sent him to New York City to steal the beating heart of an immortal that a doomsday cult was worshiping; though he expected their 'church' to be deserted when he broke in, he discovered the entire cult, even their animals, poisoned by their own hands and dead for days. When terrorists seized a strange medieval fortress on British soil in Antarctica, Cold Grey, Wisdom was sent in, and killed the entire terrorist group, even though he knew they were family men. Excalibur Wisdom became involved with Excalibur at the prompting of Black Air due to a link between Brian Braddock's father and a special ammunition. These bullets were derived from a Genoshan mutate's skin. He later battled Black Air, including his old rival Scratch. He also began a romantic relationship with Shadowcat, much to Lockheed's disapproval. Some team members worried that Kitty would only end up being hurt by the roguish Wisdom. Kitty's ex-boyfriend Colossus, having recently left the Acolytes, came to Muir Island seeking Kitty, and was shocked to spy her with Wisdom; not entirely in his right mind, he launched an unprovoked attack on Wisdom. The two came to blows and Colossus beat Wisdom almost to death, confining Wisdom to a wheelchair for some time. Though Wisdom was taken unawares and was drunk at the time, he managed to mount a defense which left Colossus in critical condition too. X-Force Following his romance with Kitty, Wisdom encounterd X-Force in Genosha. A short time later, he went on to create an independent espionage network to police the global intelligence community's treatment of mutants. As the new leader and mentor of X-Force, Wisdom, now sporting an eyepatch due to the loss of an eye, at one point seemed to have been killed by genetic terrorist Doctor Niles Roman. His demise was subsequently exposed as a ruse, however, as was the loss of his eye. Wisdom subsequently joined British intelligence agency MI-13. New Excalibur In the wake of M-Day, Wisdom collaborated with Captain Britain, Sage, Juggernaut, Nocturne, Dazzler and others in battling the Dark X-Men, evil versions of the founding X-Men team and their mentor from an alternate reality. Subsequently, Wisdom called for the reformation of the team Excalibur, with the aforementioned as the prime members, even going so far as to procure a Home Secretary Decree indemnifying the Juggernaut of any crimes on British soil so that he could act as a full member of the team. Since then, Pete has been appointed as field commander for MI-13. During one of its first missions, Wisdom was compelled to enter into an arranged marriage with a rogue fairy named Tink as part of a truce to stop a fairy invasion of Earth. | Powers = Hot Knives: can absorb ambient heat and solar radiation, and release the absorbed energy from his fingertips as semi-solid energy projections called 'hot knives'. His Hot Knives are pure thermal energy, said to be as "hot as the surface of the sun". Pete can also use them to form shields to burn incoming missiles or to generate thermals beneath him as he falls to slow his descent. He can fire his hot knives as projectiles, or leave them attached to his fingertips like claws for close physical combat. Pete has excellent control of his knives, able to cause severe damage or just to stun. | Abilities = Skilled in espionage, intelligence-gathering and firearms. | Strength = | Weaknesses = | Equipment = | Transportation = | Weapons = various pistols. | Notes = | Trivia = * Wisdom was romantically involved with Kitty Pryde for a while, a relationship controversial in fandom for its implied sexuality. (The Warren Ellis script which introduced the relationship between the two was far more explicit than what made it to press: Originally, the last panel in the issue in question was to have Shadowcat and Wisdom in bed together. After initially approving the scene, Marvel's editors got cold feet and the panel instead showed the couple exchanging a kiss in silhouette. Some later small touches that Ellis was able to include were Pete's reference to Kitty's feet being "like plates of ice" in bed, and an illustration of Kitty's bedroom with one of Pete's ties hanging on a bedpost.) The controversy of their relationship stems primarily from their disparate ages: Wisdom is said to be ten years older than Pryde (due to the vague nature of times passage in comic universes, Ellis chose to portray her as being in her early twenties, though other writers felt that she was still in her mid-to-late teens). The pair starred in the Pryde and Wisdom three-issue miniseries, which was also written by Ellis; this series also introduced Wisdom's sister Romany, as well as his father Harold, a retired Scotland Yard inspector. He had a somewhat antagonistic (though ultimately friendly) relationship with the other team members, particularly Lockheed, who was jealous of his relationship with Kitty. His relationship with Pryde eventually ended, and Wisdom left the team in issue 120. * After Excalibur dissolved, he was briefly affiliated with X-Force. His first appearance in this comic occurred in X-Force volume 1, issues 94 and 95, where he requested X-force's aid in recovering a cybernetic brain from Genosha, fighting Magneto in the process. Soon after, Warren Ellis became the 'plotmaster' of X-Force - Ian Edginton was the actual scripter, as part of the Counter-X rebranding of several second-tier X-titles (the others being Generation X and X-Man) - and Wisdom appeared as the new leader of the team beginning in issue 102. He acted as a mentor and showed the team members how to use their mutant powers in new ways. At the end of the first major story arc in issue 105, in which Romany Wisdom returned as a villain, Pete Wisdom was apparently murdered. He appeared in flashbacks in the next arc, these flashbacks taking place between issues 101 and 102. In issue 115 the remainder of X-Force (with the exception of Domino) were apparently killed, while Wisdom was revealed to still be alive. (Later, the rest of the X-Force team were revealed to have survived as well.) Wisdom's survival is apparently not known to any members of X-Force or Excalibur, and possibly the only person to know that he is alive is Alistaire Stuart, head of the British Intelligence organization "The Department". * More recently, Wisdom has helped bring together the latest version of Excalibur, alongside Captain Britain, Dazzler, Nocturne, Sage and the Juggernaut, in a new series scripted by Chris Claremont. Originally, the series' mandate was to explore the fallout from House of M in Britain. The series has since gone far beyond that including stories concerning the Dark X-Men, and Black Tom Cassidy. * At the 2006 Comic-Con International, Marvel announced that Pete Wisdom would be returning in a six-issue limited series titled Wisdom. The series was written by British author Paul Cornell and drawn by Trevor Hairsine. It was published by Marvel's mature readers' MAX comics imprint. | Links = * International Hero *[http://uncannyxmen.net/db/spotlight/showquestion.asp?faq=10&fldAuto=114 UncannyXmen.Net Spotlight on Peter Wisdom] *SDCC 06: Paul Cornell and Nick Lowe talk Wisdom for MAX }} Category:Post-M-Day Mutants (The 198) Category:Energy Absorption Category:Pyrokinesis Category:Smoker Category:Energy Projection